State Senator Scott Wiener demonstrated his ability to provide popular liberal soundbites in 2015, when the then Castro Supervisor told a Fox News TV crew, cameras rolling, that they were a "fringe propaganda machine" (today's equivalent diss would be "fake news"). Now in Sacramento, Wiener is trying to make claims tying Russia to President Trump stick with a Senate resolution — and also by invoking the Manchurian Candidate, the 1959 novel and 1962 neo-noir film about a brainwashed soldier who becomes an unwitting pawn in the Cold War.
In Senate Resolution 23 (SR23), which is co-authored by Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat, Weiner and Dodd express a desire — one carrying no legal demand — that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Russian ties to President Trump. SR23 passed 24-9, the Chronicle reports, with Wiener working in the Manchurian Candidate reference from the State Senate floor.
Senate just passed my resolution calling for independent investigation into Vladimir Putin's efforts to elect Manchurian Candidate Trump. pic.twitter.com/iUVqoV9mnE
— Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 23, 2017
Wiener was workshopping the remark since at least March 22, when he wrote on his Facebook page "With Manchurian candidate Donald Trump's connections to puppeteer Vladimir Putin in the news again, it’s clear we need a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate Trump/Russia like the one I've called for in Senate Resolution 23."
Republican State Senators, however, would prefer that Wiener and his fellows "move on" from the "partisan" issue.
“Manchurian candidate? Folks that’s way over the top,” Senator Jim Nielsen, a Republican from Gerber in Tehama County, reportedly said. “If we want to have heated rhetoric and diminish the collegiality in this house, then let’s just keep up this almost daily and weekly tirade against the president.”
